


Stray Dog

by jellyfishfics



Series: Meetings under the Moon [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Bad Decisions, Curses, Fantasy AU, Grief/Mourning, I spell Viktor with a k, M/M, Nonbinary Viktor Nikiforov, Pining, Trans Character, Trans Victor Nikiforov, Vampire Christophe Giacometti, Witch Viktor Nikiforov, Wizard Yuuri Katsuki, mention of depression, this is gonna be a darker fantasy au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:06:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfishfics/pseuds/jellyfishfics
Summary: On a night with a full moon, a curse was uttered by a fractured soul, hoping to make himself whole.A year later on that same night, under the same moon, a broken heart finds his love, patched together with forbidden bindings.





	Stray Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, hey guys...here's a fic after five hundred years (three months). Yeah, I didn't mean to disappear but I've been going through a lot of stuff. 
> 
> I'm not gonna elaborate, but I did write write [a dang long post again about fic theft](http://jellyfishfics.tumblr.com/post/160185521304/3ubra-for-my-friend-jellyfishfics-who-had-the#notes) and it sorta explains why I'm always gone, so read if you want. I just want to remind everyone that it's really important to respect fanfiction and freelance writers, we're all doing our best.
> 
> I wasn't completely dead though! I got a few things to share here that I hope you guys will check out, that will make up for my long absence (I hope?):
> 
> So, based on the last fic I posted, [Nic](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE) actually drew [this amazingly stunning piece,](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE/status/846992607171547136) please give it a look!! It honestly killed me, and continues to kill me every time I look at it.
> 
> I posted [some viktuuri baby headcanons!](http://jellyfishfics.tumblr.com/post/160504494144/ok-so-i-promised-viktuuri-baby-headcanons-and-im#notes) I might write a small series based on these later, about Viktor and Yuuri retired, and raising lil Lyubov!
> 
> And I made a fun little [thread on twitter about Yuuri having Mari's aesthetic,](https://twitter.com/jellyfishquips/status/865967131753562112) but having the same personality and anxiety lol. It got a bit of attention, so I'm thinking of writing a one-shot on it! If more people let me know what they think, I could be further convinced to write this... ;)
> 
> [Nic](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE) also did art for this thread!!! You can [check it out here!](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE/status/866118897610530817)
> 
> [Cakepril](https://twitter.com/cakepril) on twitter also did some art of [Minami with Mari's aesthetic,](https://twitter.com/cakepril/status/866936513476542464) since, in the thread au, he would have been inspired by Yuuri with Mari's aesthetic!
> 
> [Popotsukis](https://twitter.com/popotsukis) on twitter also drew [Yuuri with Mari's aesthetic](https://twitter.com/popotsukis/status/866426973131644928) from the thread!! I love their style tbh...
> 
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd, that's about it!! Sorry for this humongous author's notes, I like to keep my readers updated but honestly you guys should just follow me on twitter and tumblr for all my nonsense...
> 
> Enjoy the fic!

The crisscrossed, bare branches overhead felt like jagged bars to a cage. They loomed over Yuuri in the dead of night, only letting hints of the full moon’s light sift through. It was claustrophobic; Yuuri knew that the trees couldn’t be getting shorter, but he still picked up his pace to get away from the sense of the branches lowering and closing in on him.

He rushed to a spot he knew by heart, a place he visited every night since he had come home from Celestino’s castle.

_“Hey, did you hear? Yuuri Katsuki completely blew it in this year’s World Wizard Tournament final.”_

The forest by Yuuri’s house was almost like a puzzle, planted by his ancestors to keep those without magic away from their ‘Yutopia.’

_“It was his first year competing…and you know that he tends to fall apart under pressure.”_

Yuuri would have been lost by now if he didn’t know these woods by heart, every step as sure as the frantic beat in his chest.

_“Yeah, but he did so well in the placement matches…I really wanted to root for the underdog, so seeing him fall short was…disappointing.”_

Finally, the trees broke apart ahead, and Yuuri walked into the small clearing in front of him. Moonlight bathed the space in a silver glow, dew glistening on the grass like scattered gems. Fireflies and fairies danced in slow circles in the air, but flew away when they saw Yuuri approach.

_“Speaking of ‘dogs’…you know what happened to his familiar, right?”_

Yuuri knelt in the damp grass, before a small, unimposing tombstone.

_“Oh my god, who **hasn’t** heard? It was tragic…but a familiar’s job is to protect their master, so it couldn’t be helped. We all wish the accident didn’t happen, and at such a crucial time for Yuuri Katsuki’s career too…”_

Yuuri reached out and ran his fingers over the characters engraved on the stone, grooves his father personally carved in.

_“Really, who could have expected Katsuki to perform well when his familiar had just died?”_

Vicchan’s headstone blurred in front of him, and Yuuri blinked away the tears welling up in his eyes.

_“Familiars share part of their master’s magic and soul after all, so losing that so quickly and without warning must have been jarring…not to mention damaging. It was a wonder he was able to compete at all.”_

Yuuri took a deep breath to steel his nerves for what he had planned. Still he found his hands shaking and palms sweating, so he stuffed his nervous hands into his satchel and pulled out the tome of magic he had brought with him.

_“You’ve got to wonder what Yuuri Katsuki’s going to do now…last news about him was he headed home for the burial. He broke his apprentice contract with Celestino and everything. Is he going to stay and help run his family’s rejuvenation springs? Give up wizardry for good?”_

Yuuri shook his head, trying to dispel the conversation he overheard after his loss at the World Wizard Tournament. He was going to fix this. He was going to make things right. Everything would go back to the way it was, and Yuuri wouldn’t feel so hollow anymore.

Carefully, Yuuri set the tome on his lap, and opened it. The tome opened to the spell of his intention, and Yuuri gazed at the arcane text with growing dread in the pit of his stomach.

Could he…really do this? Forbidden spells had dire consequences, not to mention the use of them was illegal. He could be kicked out of the Magician Federation if they found out he used this. 

He could never see Viktor again.

Yuuri gripped the tome tighter in his hands, and took another deep, calming breath. The old, worn leather of the cover was soft, but unyielding. Yuuri resolved to be like this too. So what if the spell he planned to use was forbidden? His soul was already fractured and his magic felt incomplete with Vicchan gone. How could he still be a wizard like this?

How could he face Viktor again like this?

Yuuri was going to fix this. Make things right. He looked back at the text, placed his hand on the page, and felt the thin paper rustle like dry leaves. Yuuri began the incantation in a soft, steady voice.

“With the Moon as my witness tonight, I call out to you, my departed friend.” The text burned a ghoulish purple under Yuuri’s palm. “Return to me, I’ll share my life with yours, and we’ll be whole once more.”

***

Viktor stared out of the window in his hotel room bleakly, staring more at his reflection in the glass than the colorful city night life lit up by the full moon. His complexion was pale as usual, but the pallor of it was concerning. His eyes were also exhausted, despite Viktor sleeping more as of late. He slept so much that he was tired whenever he was awake. Viktor sighed.

“Viktor? Something the matter?” Chris trailed a hand lightly down the column of Viktor’s exposed neck.

Viktor’s gaze shifted to Makkachin’s reflection. She slept soundly atop the hotel bed in a mound of curly fur.

“Is the city at night so interesting that you can look away from me? There’s not even a single fairy or pixie flying by,” Chris teased.

Viktor wondered idly what he’d do if he ever lost Makkachin like Yuuri lost his own familiar.

“Viktor? Are you ok?” Chris asked, worry beginning to furrow his brow.

Viktor mused that he’d probably become a husk of a person, but was that going to be any different from the life he led now?

A delicate hand grasped his chin and turned his head. Viktor blinked, looking into Chris’ eyes.

“Viktor,” he said, tone all but grave.

“Chris,” Viktor returned slowly. “Sorry, were you saying something?”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for a while now,” Chris informed him.

“Ah, sorry. You’re hungry right?” Viktor tilted his head to the side. “Go ahead.”

Chris raised a brow and looked like he wanted to say something, but seemed to decide against it and simply shrug. Chris wrapped an arm around Viktor’s waist to support him, and placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Then Chris sank his fangs into Viktor’s neck.

Viktor winced as the fangs pierced his skin, but the feeling numbed out soon enough. No matter how many times Viktor let Chris feed from him, he never got over the initial pain from the fangs forcing their way into his vein.

Viktor said nothing as Chris drank from him. When they were younger, Viktor would gossip to his best friend about the witches’ academy he was forced to attend, and Chris would listen while drinking his blood.

He was starting to feel lightheaded by the time Chris unlatched himself. Chris licked away the blood oozing out of the wound, and Viktor sucked in a gasp at the sting. He would have fallen limp to the ground, but Chris’ hold around his waist was firm, and his lifted Viktor in his arms to place him on the bed.

“Thanks Chris,” Viktor said with a weak smile.

Chris said nothing and simply reached for the balm Viktor concocted himself, a salve that healed the bite of a vampire quickly. Chris applied it to the mark he had just made, and then set the container back on the nightstand.

Viktor frowned. “Are you mad because I ignored you earlier? I said I was sorry; I just didn’t realize—”

“I’m not mad at that,” Chris cut Viktor off, but didn’t elaborate.

Viktor glared. “Then what _are_ you mad at, may I ask, your Highness Christophe?”

Chris rolled his eyes, and gestured to Viktor’s whole form. “I’m mad at this!”

Viktor sat up, despite how dizzy it made him. “The hell? Isn’t it just easier to say you’re mad at me—”

“I’m not mad at you!” Chris shouted. “I’m mad at this situation! I’m mad that you’re not taking care of yourself! I’m mad that I have to watch you waste away, and you won’t say anything or listen to a word I say!”

Viktor closed his mouth, counterargument dying in his throat.

“I know you’re upset,” Chris said, softer, sweeter. He placed a hand over Viktor’s. “But it’s been a whole year since he disappeared, Viktor. Isn’t it about time you let go?”

Viktor pulled his hand out from under Chris’, and cradled it as if it had been burned. “Funny. I distinctly remember you supporting the pursuit of this love before.”

Chris met Viktor’s eyes calmly. “Yes, emphasis on _before._ Before he fell off the face of this planet. Before you started secluding yourself. Before you started eating less, sleeping more, and before you avoided doing your work to come up with ‘Yuuri Katsuki Disappearance Conspiracy Theories.’”

Viktor looked away. “I’m on a break right now.”

“The Magician Federation gave you a break because you’re the strongest Witch they have contracted and rather than fire you and lose their best, they decided to put you on leave in the hopes that you’ll sort yourself out,” Chris argued.

Viktor didn’t say anything in response, but his rigid posture spoke of his defiance.

“Viktor, please try to see reason. Yuuri’s been gone so long that he’s probably dea—”

“Don’t say it!” Viktor yelled, drowning out the sound of the last word Chris tried to say. “Don’t. Just…please don’t say it.”

Chris’ eyes softened with pity and Viktor hated it. “You know that not saying it doesn’t make it any less true, right?”

Viktor bit his lip as tears welled up in his eyes. “If I hear it, my heart will break and I’ll lose all hope.”

Chris looked worn out. “You’re _already_ heartbroken! You’ve _already_ lost all hope! Look at yourself Viktor, you have depression.”

Viktor scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t have depression.”

“Yes, you do. I can taste it in your blood. Your physical health has declined because your mental health is so poor. Your sadness has seeped so deep that it’s practically in your marrow, and it’s made you weak and brittle.” Chris reached out to squeeze Viktor’s shoulder comfortingly. “You know that you need to get help. I want to help you, if you’ll let me.”

Viktor shrugged Chris’ hand off. “I don’t need anything.” _Except finding Yuuri,_ Viktor added silently.

Chris seemed to know exactly what Viktor was thinking. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I know you loved him. I know you thought he was your fated one.”

“I _know_ he is, Chris,” Viktor hissed.

“I know it hurts to lose him. But how do you think Yuuri would feel, knowing you were neglecting yourself in his absence? You know he’d want you to get better,” Chris urged.

“I know,” Viktor sighed. “I’ll…try. For Yuuri. And for you.”

Chris smiled. “That’s all we want.”

***

Self-care meant transporting yourself with a magic portal to the childhood home of your beloved.

Viktor stepped through first, standing in Hasetsu when he was only moments ago in St. Petersburg. Deeming the portal safe and secure, Viktor bid Makkachin to follow him. Once she was by his side, Viktor closed the portal.

The night was eerily quiet in Hasetsu. The town was small and sleepy, the trees were dark and bare, and Viktor could smell snow waiting to fall in the air. The ocean was a black stretch of churning water as they silently made their way to the Katsuki’s famous Yutopia, home of hot springs said to rejuvenate magic and magicians alike. 

Viktor pulled his coat and hood closer around himself when he thought he saw someone pass by, but it turned out to just be shadows wavering on the edges of streetlights. The streetlights were dim here, but Viktor and Makkachin had enough light from the full moon to get by.

Soon, the entrance to Yutopia became visible, and Viktor rushed to it with Makkachin on his heels. The lights inside were still on, and Viktor was going to head inside to ask where Yuuri could be, when something close to the front doors made him pause.

Viktor couldn’t understand Japanese. When he first became infatuated with Yuuri, he started studying the language in his free time, but the different alphabets confused him, and he only learned a few key phrases. 

But anyone could recognize a memorial honoring someone they weren’t able to find.

Viktor turned around and left Yutopia. Yuuri wasn’t here. The gravel crunched under his feet, and Viktor swallowed the hitch in his throat. Maybe Yuuri was really gone after all? Maybe he was…

Viktor stopped on the street. He didn’t want to acknowledge it. No matter what, he refused to believe it. How could Yuuri, charming, shy, clumsy Yuuri, be dead? Yuuri was prideful, beautiful, and had a grace to his magic and form that you could see only if you watched closely. Someone like that didn’t just keel over and die out of the blue.

Makkachin whined and nudged Viktor’s leg. Only from that prodding did Viktor realize he was crying.

“I-I’m fine Makkachin, I’m just…” _Irrevocably damaged for the rest of my life,_ Viktor didn’t want to admit.

The chilly breeze picked up around them, and it carried a voice with it.

_“Sweet witch, do not cry,”_ the voice whispered to him.

“W-What? Who said that?” Viktor asked

_“We are the faye of the forest here. You seek the one who holds your heart, do you not?”_

“I do! I do, do you know where he is? Others have searched for him, but none have been successful.”

_“It is not a surprise. His magic and soul are changed; thus he is altered. If you wish to find him, comb through the woods. He hides here among us.”_

“Hides? What do you mean hides?” Why would Yuuri need to hide?

_“We have said all we can. Your love lies through the trees.”_

The wind died down and Viktor was left with only that clue.

“I suppose…following that hint is our only option.” Viktor refused to give up on Yuuri, no matter how ominous the faye were in their advice.

Viktor jogged with Makkachin to the outskirts of Hasetsu, where the forest laid in front of them. Viktor placed a hand on the trunk of the nearest tree.

“This forest is imbued with a spell designed to keep those without magic away,” he told Makkachin. Viktor could sense the faye who led him here, along with something else. Something with a large, and foreboding presence. It was a warped soul, out of place. Viktor could feel the working of dark magic around the cursed creature, and recoiled.

Was Yuuri hiding from that thing? Was that monster keeping Yuuri trapped in the forest, for an entire year?

Viktor worried his lip between his teeth. _Well, no longer!_ he thought. _I’ll save Yuuri from the beast here. Then we'll go home and live happily together._ Viktor pulled an oil lantern from the charmed pouch at his hip, and lit a fire in it. Carefully, Viktor and Makkachin made their way through the woods.

Viktor walked the ground as softly as he could, but he couldn’t help the small flinches he made when he accidentally snapped a branch underfoot. The only sounds in the woods were Viktor and Makkachin’s steps, and the hollow wind whistling through dry branches. Viktor was overly aware of his heart thrumming loud in his chest.

Yuuri…was here, wasn’t he? The faye were known to be a bit devious, but surely they wouldn’t play so cruel a trick on Viktor? They couldn’t be leading Viktor to his doom within these woods, could they?

Viktor was a confident person, but every step in this twisting forest chipped away at his resolve.

“Do you think we should head back Makka…?” Viktor’s voice trailed off into nothing when he felt a huff of breath at the back of his neck. He turned around and saw a pair of large, yellow eyes boring into his own. The eyes belonged to a hulking creature, covered with dark, matted fur, and it had a vicious snarl of gleaming sharp teeth.

Viktor smothered a scream behind his hand and jumped away, dropping his lantern. It broke on the ground and started a small fire by the monster’s feet. Makkachin dashed around Viktor and growled at the thing from behind him.

Viktor couldn’t help but stare at the wolven creature in paralyzed fright. The curse hung heavy on the beast like a haze, and it made the air taste of toxic. What _was_ this thing?

_“His magic and soul are changed; thus he is altered,”_ the fayes’ words echoed in Viktor’s mind.

_No,_ Viktor told himself. _No, this couldn’t possibly be…_

Viktor held up a hand to form a purifying spell in his palm. The spell wouldn’t be able to cure the curse, but it would be able to dispel some of the haze for a while. Viktor double-checked the white glow in his palm, and then reached out toward the monster in front of him.

Slowly, the face of the creature crumbled away, and Viktor’s hand rested against a very human cheek, with tears spilling hot. As soon as Viktor touched him, the monstrous form evaporated, and the feral yellow faded to wide, brown eyes.

Shakily, he grabbed Viktor’s outstretched arm, looking even more shocked to find Viktor real and tangible.

“V-Viktor? What are you doing here?” the man asked in an amazed and horrified tone.

_Those eyes, that voice…_ after all the nights Viktor cried out of a broken, bitter heart, he could hardly believe who he was looking at. Desperately, hope wanted to soar yet again in his chest, but the implications surrounding their reunion caged that feeling with sinking dread.

“Yuuri?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really excited to start this new fic project, and I'm really happy to have my friends' support in this! I hope I'll have your guys' support as readers too!
> 
> Please leave a kudos/comment/message on my social media if you enjoyed this fic!
> 
> Here's the links from the beginning author's notes if you missed them in your excitement to read this fic:
> 
> [Please respect writers, especially fandom writers](http://jellyfishfics.tumblr.com/post/160185521304/3ubra-for-my-friend-jellyfishfics-who-had-the#notes)   
>  [Viktor, clothes thief extraordinaire](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE/status/846992607171547136)   
>  [Introducing Lyubov Katsuki-Nikiforov!](http://jellyfishfics.tumblr.com/post/160504494144/ok-so-i-promised-viktuuri-baby-headcanons-and-im#notes)   
>  [Anxiety bean feat. piercings and dyed hair](https://twitter.com/jellyfishquips/status/865967131753562112)   
>  [Art of delinquent anxiety bean and Phichit](https://twitter.com/NICHOLASonICE/status/866118897610530817)   
>  [Minami with Mari's aesthetic](https://twitter.com/cakepril/status/866936513476542464)   
>  [Yuuri with Mari's aesthetic](https://twitter.com/popotsukis/status/866426973131644928)
> 
> Please check out the links and give love to all these talented artists!
> 
> Thank you for reading! ❤


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